Igor Ozhiganov

After years of trying to find his place in the NHL, former top prospect turned journeyman Kerby Rychelhas decided to take his talents to Sweden. Orebro HK of the SHL announced today that Rychel has signed a one-year contract with the club. Rychel brings with him nearly 300 games worth of AHL experience, as well as 43 NHL games. The 19th overall pick by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2013, Rychel entered the pro level with high expectations as both the son of respected former player and OHL executive Warren Rycheland as a player who had done serious damage on the score sheet at the junior level. Rychel looked to be on his way to becoming an established NHL player when he suited up for 32 games with Columbus in his second pro season, but a trade to Toronto – in exchange for current Blue Jackets defenseman Scott Harrington– altered his trajectory. Rychel never played a single game for the Maple Leafs, spending close to two full seasons with the AHL’s Marlies. He was then traded to the Montreal Canadiens at the tail end of the 2017-18 season as part of the package for rental Tomas Plekanec. Despite performing well in a brief showing with the Habs, Rychel was traded again last summer to the Calgary Flames for Hunter Shinkaruk. Even as he was enjoying the best per-game production of his AHL career with the Stockton Heat, Rychel earned just two appearances with the Flames and the team did not make him a qualifying offer earlier this summer. Putting a tumultuous NHL career behind him, Rychel will now try his hand at the SHL. Orebro struggled last season, finishing tenth out of 14 teams and will be glad to add an experienced talent like Rychel. Between he, fellow new addition Ryan Stoa, and returning top liner Shane Harper, Orebro should pack some more offensive punch next season.

Given the lackluster NHL free agent market this summer, it’s no surprise that few veterans who had previously made the jump to Europe have been able to find a fit back in North America. Count defenseman Tobias Enstromamong that group. The 34-year-old has re-signed with his hometown team, MODO of the Swedish minor league Allsvenkan, the club announced. It is a new one-year deal for the captain, who returned to Sweden last off-season. A career member of the Atlanta Thrashers/Winnipeg Jets franchise, Enstrom found himself without a home for the first time in 11 years last summer as a free agent without a market. He held out hope, waiting for an offer until late August, before opting to head home. In returning to MODO, the team he grew up playing for – albeit in the SHL at that time – Enstrom took on a leadership and also saw a spike in his production. MODO hopes that the strong play continues from their veteran ace, as the team looks to contend for promotion back to the SHL in the upcoming season.

The quiet NHL free agent market has had an overwhelmingly positive effect on the European leagues, as few players left their respective clubs while talent continues to come over from North America. While Sweden has had a strong off-season in the import business, the winner thus far in terms of NHL additions is unsurprisingly the KHL, considered to be the best of the European leagues. Among the players who have signed in the KHL this off-season are forwards Sven Andrighetto, Ty Rattie, Nikita Soshnikov, Jori Lehtera, Peter Holland, and Lukas Sedlak, defensemen Andrej Sustr, Igor Ozhiganov, Bogdan Kiselevich, andJakub Jerabek,and goaltender Harri Sateri. It’s a valuable influx of talent for a league that is seeking better competitive balance.

Free agency is now just a few days away and there are quite a few prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign. Toronto has already locked up a few important names, but still has plenty of work to do before knowing what next season’s roster will look like. Here’s a closer look at their free agent situation.

Key Restricted Free Agent: F Mitch Marner — If this article had been written yesterday this section would have included the likes of Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson, but it always all came down to Marner. The entire Maple Leafs’ offseason is revolving around him at the moment, with the uncertainty of when Toronto will sign his next contract. That is of course if it’s signed at all by the Maple Leafs, as offer sheet speculation has never been as high as it seems to be regarding the 22-year old star. A huge part of that speculation is the market he plays in, but Marner is reportedly seeking a huge raise that would make him one of the (if not the) highest paid wingers in the league.

There’s good reason for Marner to believe in himself and his abilities. The undersized forward dominated the OHL before and after the Maple Leafs selected him fourth overall in 2015, and he began his NHL career without missing a step. 61 points his first season, 69 his second and a whopping 94 points in 2018-19 made him one of the most lethal offensive weapons in the game, even if that last jump was at least in part due to the addition of John Tavares. Not only is Marner an incredible playmaker, but he also took on a penalty killing role with the Maple Leafs this season and became one of head coach Mike Babcock’s most trusted defensive forwards.

None of the reports and rumors from either side mean much to GM Kyle Dubas and Marner’s agent Darren Ferris, who need to work out a deal at some point if the Maple Leafs are going to proceed with the rest of their offseason. The team currently has just $6.9MM in cap space but can exceed the limit during the offseason or move Nathan Horton to long-term injured reserve. That still doesn’t leave much room for free agent additions because, as Dubas told Chris Johnston of Sportsnet today, they “have got to save space for Mitch.”

Key Unrestricted Free Agents: D Jake Gardiner — If the Maple Leafs had more cap space there is no doubt that they would be trying to keep Gardiner in town, given the state of their defense corps without him. Even though he’s not the right-handed option they so desperately need, his depature—and the potential trade of Nikita Zaitsev—could leave them with just three proven NHL options in the whole organization in Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin and Travis Dermott. That’s a horrendous position to be in, even if it is with several months remaining before the start of the year. Gardiner though will likely be priced out of the Maple Leafs’ range given his history as a top puck-moving option. Though he is derided by many for the occasional what-was-he-thinking giveaway, Gardiner has amassed 245 points in his 551 game career including a career-high of 52 in 2017-18. An excellent offensive catalyst at even-strength, he’ll likely earn himself quite the payday on July 1.

D Ron Hainsey — The other big departure from the Maple Leafs blue line is Hainsey, even if he did turn 38 in late March. His agent confirmed that he will continue playing as long as there is interest, and after a +30 season playing alongside Rielly on the top pairing there won’t be any shortage of teams calling. Hainsey is not the offensive player he once was—remember that years ago he was an excellent powerplay quarterback—but he can still contribute and log big minutes in almost every situation. A favorite of Babcock, he could sign a bonus-laden deal if teams aren’t willing to give him a second year.

F Tyler Ennis — Perhaps overlooked for the Maple Leafs this year because of their star-studded forward group, Ennis took a minimum salary contract in order to try and build his value back up and he did it wonderfully. Even fighting through an injury that limited him to 51 games, the undersized forward scored 12 goals from the fourth line and showed he can still play at the NHL level. A three-time 20-goal scorer, the 29-year old Ennis should secure another NHL deal to provide a little scoring depth at a relatively inexpensive price—but probably one the Maple Leafs can’t afford.

Projected Cap Space: The Maple Leafs currently sit a little more than $6.94MM under the cap ceiling according to CapFriendly, but can also put Horton’s $5.3MM deal on long-term injured reserve if necessary to give them some more flexibility. That number is only including the cap hits for 18 players however, meaning they actually have even less than that once they decide who will be making the roster.

As expected, Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Igor Ozhiganov is heading back to the KHL. The pending restricted free agent has signed a two-year contract with Ak Bars Kazan according to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet. The Maple Leafs can retain his rights temporarily if they issue him a qualifying offer, but lose them next summer after Ozhiganov’s 27th birthday.

Meanwhile, Eemeli Rasanenis also heading back to the KHL this time to join Jokerit once again. Rasanen, a second-round pick from 2017 played five games with the Toronto Marlies this year but will continue to develop overseas for the time being. He doesn’t have a contract with the Maple Leafs currently, but they will retain his draft rights indefinitely due to his departure to the KHL before they expired in the first place.

Speaking of Jokerit, the team also made a trade today to acquire some pretty impressive rights. The team now owns the KHL rights for Florida Panthers forward Henrik Borgstrom and Dallas Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen. While this doesn’t mean much right now given the two young players are entrenched in the NHL, it could potentially pay off if there is another work stoppage and North American talent is looking for a place to play.

Luke Kuninhas been added to the Team USA roster at the current IIHF World Championship, giving the team a full 25-man roster. They’re back in action this weekend taking on Denmark and Germany, before a classic battle with Canada on Tuesday evening. Kunin brings a fair bit of international experience despite being just 21, as he won gold at both the U18 and U20 World Juniors while serving as captain for Team USA. Clayton Keller, Colin White and Adam Fox were also part of that U20 team, now reunited at the Worlds.

After a strong season, Islanders goalie Robin Lehner is set to be one of the more intriguing unrestricted free agents. He joined New York in what may very well have been a last chance situation and responded with the best numbers of his career and played a big role in them reaching the second round of the postseason. Despite that, he noted to reporters, including Newsday’s Andrew Gross, that there have yet to be any discussions regarding a contract extension.

That’s not the case when it comes to winger Anders Lee. The captain took a step back offensively this past season but still had 28 goals and 23 assists in 82 games and he indicated that there have been plenty of conversations between his agent Neil Sheehy and GM Lou Lamoriello. It was reported back in late February that one potential holdup in discussions may be the length of the deal that Lee is seeking; he’ll turn 29 early in July.

Elsewhere in the East:

The Red Wings are one of the finalists to sign Finnish defenseman Oliwer Kaski, agent Todd Diamond acknowledged to MLive’s Ansar Khan. Kaski had a breakout season with Pelicans of the SM-liiga with 51 points in 59 games to lead the league in points by a defenseman. Columbus is another team that is believed to have interest in the 23-year-old. Meanwhile, Khan adds that defenseman Libor Sulak is contemplating signing back overseas. He played in six games with Detroit this past season but spent the majority of it at the minor league level, collecting five goals and nine assists in 61 games with AHL Grand Rapids.

Maple Leafs defenseman Igor Ozhiganov has indeed decided to return to the KHL for next season, reports Jonas Siegel of The Athletic (Twitter link). The move had been speculated in recent weeks, especially after he lost his regular spot in the lineup and the fact that his KHL rights were dealt to Ak Bars Kazan at the beginning of the month. Toronto can issue a qualifying offer to Ozhiganov this summer that would allow them to retain his NHL rights for one more year though he’ll be eligible for unrestricted free agency either way in the summer of 2020.